Nan Enstad, professor and chair of the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology, was selected to receive the 2025 Myron H. and Anna Atwood Faculty Fellow Award.

Enstad is a rural sociologist and historian of capitalism, agriculture and food. She works at the interface between capitalism and daily life, focusing on the U.S. garment industry, the global tobacco industry and, more recently, intensive animal agriculture and agroecology. She teaches two courses focused on food systems, culture and inequality, and she mentors graduate students in the Joint Sociology Graduate Program, the History Graduate Program and the Agroecology Graduate Program. Most recently, Enstad has turned her academic focus to developing an updated curriculum that creates community engaged and applied research opportunities for students. These opportunities will address the changing student demographic and interest areas surrounding food studies, community development and community access to important data. This innovative work is part of efforts in the department, and the college broadly, to strengthen undergraduate programs.

The Atwood Faculty Fellow Award was established by Fannie Atwood Roberts to recognize faculty members for demonstrated excellence in teaching and support the enhancement of quality teaching in the college. This award recognizes not only direct engagement of faculty teaching, but also the leadership that supports it.